The Knicks world is caught up in the great impact of Chris Copeland and while it’s a great story and certainly valid, I noticed an Xs and Os wrinkle yesterday that, in my opinion, has the Knicks firmly back in this series heading back to Indiana for Game 6.

The adjustment of the series, and year, went to Mike Woodson and his staff last night. I will go on record saying if the Knicks continue to run the flex offense wrinkles in Game 6 they will force Game 7.

What is the flex offense and why is it the perfect set for Playoff Melo? Here we go…

The flex is designed to get touches and baskets closer to the rim and with use of down screens (or pin downs) it allows for Melo to catch the basketball in spots where he’s more comfortable- at either elbow.

Look at Melo’s Game 3 and Game 4 shot charts. He struggled to get comfortable touches, which for scorers lead to more scoring opportunities, and thus had to settle for long shots outside the paint.

Game 3

Game 4

Now look at the adjustments thanks to adding flex cuts and down screens. Compare where his shots came and, more importantly, where his makes came…much closer to the basket and from mid-wing not mid baseline, the hardest angled shot on the floor.

The flex, in my opinion, is the perfect set to run against Roy Hibbert. All series the Knicks have tried to attack Hibbert when he’s in the paint. When the play is in front of him he’s been able to read the situation and anticipate chances to stop penetration before it gets to the rim. That’s what shot blockers do. They have to anticipate help and step in thus leaving their man after the offensive player commits. The beauty of the flex is that it forces Hibbert out of the paint and to either block having to follow Tyson Chandler. It also eliminates his angles as he will be forced most of the time under the rim and protecting against baseline cuts and not at the front of the rim. If Melo catches the ball in the paint off a flex cut he’s too strong for Paul George who has shown a propensity to be allergic to screens. The more screens he’s hit with the more physical the game becomes. Advantage Knicks on both sides.

Again, if Melo catches it deep and Hibbert helps on him the lob opportunities present themselves thus getting potential critical easy baskets for Kenyon Martin and Tyson Chandler, more specifically, aside from just pick and lob dunks from Ray Felton.

Speaking of Felton, he’s really good at curl elbow jumpers as well and whether off side pick and roll or pin downs, he is very good at knocking shots down on the right side elbow going left. Those makes allow for an easier trip into the paint as well as you saw last night.

More to the point, the flex is an impossible offense to consistently defend because it promotes constant movement until the point where the offense is happy with an isolation. In the Knicks case they will take Melo isos on the elbows all game long. That’s his office. Frank Vogel is on record saying that the Pacers won’t change what they do. Great. The Knicks shouldn’t either.

Keep running the flex and watch this series shift back in the Knicks favor quickly.

Like this:

With all the forward rentals that seem to be available at the deadline, I am worried about Vanek's value. If teams think Snow's asking price is too high, they can turn to Moulson, Gaborik, Callahan, Ott and possibly Jagr and even players who have years left on their deals like St. Louis, Kessler or Gagner.

I'm sure it was negotiated in advance as part of the agreement between the IOC, NHL and NHLPA. No one does anything out of the goodness of their heart. As is the norm, everyone gets taken care of except the suckers who buy the tickets.

This is worth a scratch or two to the head. Puzzling that the IOC would even offer to make Wang whole on Tavares salary while he is off injured. Wang must have some incriminating photos of Thomas Bach lying around. Otherwise I cannot fathom why the IOC would even offer to make such a deal...

@Steven Cook. Your not wrong but at the same time there are a lot of buyers out there as well. Also the price of some of the guys you mentioned doesn't appear to be much lower than that of Vanek. I do hate this waiting game though and really wish we knew what team gave that 'serious' offer along with what it included. Being the public really sucks sometimes lol.

@orange2327 I used to be "concerned" when the rags got a big name to their line up,spent millions on "name" players. With the exception of the cup year ,it did not amount to much. Somehow they faltered at the end. It kept them in the media eyes as contenders, made few waves but they were still just an OK ream. They got lucky with goalies but never more than that. Their fans leave the game with bitter taste in their mouths ,not as bad as ours, but no real results.

So I stopped losing sleep over it.

I worry about my team, how to get them to turn around. If they hustle and play hard they'll win. (battle level speech anybody?)

@rmreturns So what did i make up exactly? Lafontaine at least has the smarts to hire hockey people. Thats my point. As for Ted Nolan he's been getting praise from everyone in the hockey world for his work with Latvia, and his work with a young team in Buffalo. You can't tell me you didn't like the work he did for the Islanders in a short period

@rmreturns @Jason Zimmermann For the record Lafontaine isn't the GM. President of Hockey operations, who hired Ted Nolan to coach the team. Then after a long search for a GM hired Tim Murray. Murray has many years as a scout plus 8 years as assistant Gm under his uncle Bryan Murray who knows a thing or two about building winners. So yeah i have alot more faith in Lafontaine